Mike Mussina headed to Orioles Hall of Fame

Via Steve Melewski, Mike Mussina has been elected to the Orioles Hall of Fame. We all think of Moose as a Yankee, but the man did his best work while with Baltimore. During his nine full seasons with the Orioles, Mussina finished in the top five of Cy Young voting five times plus two other sixth place finishes. He’s among the franchise’s all-time leaders in bWAR (second), strikeouts (second), K/BB ratio (second), WPA (second), ERA+ (third), wins (third), starts (fifth), and innings (seventh). Congrats to Moose on a great career and well-deserved honor.

I suspect he will one day be going into the big boy’s HOF. I’d love to see him in a Yankees cap, but it will be and should be as an Oriole. Frankly, the whole “cap” thing is very outdated considering how much players move about. Maybe it’s time for the Hall to use a generic cap (as was done with Catfish Hunter) and then put the logos of the teams on the plaque.

And last, why have the Yankees never created their own HOF? They are missing a great fan/marketing opportunity, and one which can be used to honor players like Paul O’Neill without having to address the idiotic retirement of numbers.

Bo Knows

They do have one (sorta) its monument park.

Billion$Bullpen

The O’s wall of fame is RIGHT next to the bathrooms, i mean RIGHT next to it.

As far as what I think of Moose as, I would say an O. His best years were there, he came up there. They were a good team for a few years and he was their ace. To me he does NOT belong in the Hall of Fame (but I do not believe a lot of the recent memebers do not belong in the hall)

I watched Moose from the start to the end as I live close enough to Baltimore that I get all their TV games and went to so many of them. He was an amazing pitcher for a couple of years and a very good pitcher for a few more and a good pitcher for a few years. I do not think of him as a HOF and I think his stats if we want to go by those are shy of what a “true hall of famer” should have. But I have no vote, and worse pitchers have gotten in.

Rainbow Connection

“The O’s wall of fame is RIGHT next to the bathrooms, i mean RIGHT next to it.”

But do they have a HUGE monument tribute to their dumb, hothead owner who was suspended from the game from spying on his employees…and while he was suspended the team developed and brought up tremendous young talent which led to many rings…and when he came back, he destroyed the team with high priced, underperforming FA’s????

Didn’t think so.

I Live In My Mom’s Basement

The location of the O’s wall of fame seems a little disrespectful to Flanny.

Nathan

Fringe HOF candidate…if he goes, does he go in as an Oriole or a Yankee?

(I’d hope a Yankee but he didn’t really do anything with the Yankees that he didn’t do as an Oriole, other than win 20 games).

RetroRob

Orioles: 147-81 .645 3.53 130 ERA+

Yankees: 123-72 .631 3.88 115 ERA+

Ten years with the Orioles, eight with the Yankees. Longer and better with the Orioles, and they drafted and developed him. If it’s one cap and the Hall picks, then it’s the Orioles.

Now if he has some issue with the Orioles and he’d prefer the Yankees, he could let the Hall know that and in this case they might honor those wishes because he did split his career between two teams. This is not like Wade Boggs trying to go in as a Devil Ray (if that story was even true!)

http://theevilsquare.com handtius

Moose ain’t fringe at all. He’ll be in and as a Oriole. Wouldn’t mind another Yankee cap in there, especially on Moose. He was one of my favorite ’00 players. He had a sarcasm most didn’t get. I loved it.

https://twitter.com/Mattpat11 Matt DiBari

And soon he’ll be in the real Hall of Fame.

Congrats Moose!

Mattchu12

My all-time favorite pitcher, good for him.

LarryM.,Fl.

Moose was always a class act. He spoke his mind in an intelligent manner and gave it his best on the field. In his later years with the Yankees his pitching was very crafty as he pitched to batters with diminish speed but excellent breaking pitches.

He had a wonderful career with both the Orioles and Yankees. I wish him the best with the HOF voting.

Billion$Bullpen

While I was a fan of Moose, he refused to pitch inside and it effected the Yankees in a negative way. Moose obviously is more intelligent than the average guy who plays ball, but he only won that 20 games because he was so horrible the year before Girardi was going to put him in the pen if he did not pitch inside and he finally did again his final year.

Early in his career he would pitch inside and I think that was the reason he was more effective as a bird than a Yank.

mike

Besides a few classic games against Boston and his relief appearance in 2003, it always seemed that he was a disappointing pitcher, even in the playoffs.

Not only would he not pitch inside, butit seemed the would get nibbly at times, and against better teams ( especially when he lost steam off his fastball towards the end) it was problematic for him.

It didnt help that he was the smartest guy in the room, and had to deal with Posada

AC

Does anyone know what the beef is between Mussina and Michael Kay? Someone said something to MK on twitter on regards to this. Did they falling out and does anyone have info on this subject. On serious note.